Hungarian LGBT Business Leaders Forum

Last week a landmark event took place in Budapest, Hungary - a conference that focused on LGBT diversity and marketing issues.



Ian Johnson, Out Now
May 24, 2010

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Topics: Out Now. 2010 LGBT Hungary Business Leaders Forum. IBM. Gay and lesbian diversity. GLBT marketing and diversity. Out Now Global 2010 LGBT Market Study. Hungarian Business Leaders Forum HBLF first LGBT event held last week in Budapest, Hungary.

I am very lucky that my business life takes me to so many interesting places and delivers such a wide variety of work to undertake.

Last week I found myself in Hungary at the invitation of the Hungarian Business Leaders Forum (HBLF) - to moderate a workshop on LGBT marketing.

This session was in the broader context of the two day 1st Hungarian LGBT Business Leaders Forum which took place on May 20-21, 2010.

There was an impressive array of leaders from the political and business spheres.

Borbala Czako - the UK Ambassador to Hungary, and HBLF President - gave a warm welcome to delegates, and also hosted a function at the British Embassy for invited guests. It proved to be a great opportunity for us to mingle and network together.

The IBM Country General Manager of Hungary, Peter Paal, delivered an informative presentation where he explained that when the in-house LGBT staff group - EAGLE - was established several years ago in Hungary, he was pleased to be their sponsor within IBM. This, he said, made it very clear to all staff that the equal treatment of LGBT staff is considered a non-negotiable business imperative at IBM.

Andreas Citak, Managing Director for Global GLBT Marketing at IBM was a member of several panels during the forum, and he made an excellent point that when it comes to LGBT diversity and inclusion, IBM has been doing it longer than most. Sexual orientation equality was recognised by IBM as part of the firm's corporate policies over 25 years ago, way back in 1984 - when this was a leading-edge thing for any major global corporation to commit to.

IBM were co-organizers and principal sponsors of the forum.

Other sponsors included Vodafone and Morgan Stanley.

David Legg - Managing Director of Morgan Stanley - made a presentation that I personally found both enlightened and enlightening. He chose a powerful reference point where he related how were his 6 year old son to be gay - he would want that he be judged not for his sexuality, but for what he does with his life. At Morgan Stanley he related to the delegates that many LGBT people are members of their UK staff association, but that those who prefer not to join any staff groups are obviously free not to do so. But even for this group, he said, they often remark to him how pleased they are that Morgan Stanley makes the statement of inclusion that is inherent in an effectively operated LGBT in-house staff group.

One of the more dynamic presentations was made by Debbie Laybourn - Group Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Vodafone. Her presentation included an award-winning video - of which Debbie was one of the creators - highlighting the practical impacts that inclusion of diversity seeks to address when implemented by a corporation.

LGBT Business Development and Marketing

This session included a range of topics and speakers.

As moderator, I introduced the session looking at the history of LGBT marketing as experienced firsthand by myself at Out Now, specializing in this field since 1992.

We discussed various Out Now work with corporates during that time in areas such as communications, strategy, training - including the GayComfort online training program, and research - such as the newly launched Out Now Global 2010 LGBT Market Study.

It was fun to reveal that one of the new models appearing in Out Now's advertising for our client TUI, in their LGBT travel Freedom Collection by Thomson - is Attila - a Budapest local.

We discussed a slide that showed that respondents to 2008 Out Now LGBT market research for Millivres in the UK revealed that only 32 percent of them said that gays and lesbians are currently treated "very well" at their work. That implies that more than two in three LGBT workers in the UK experience varying levels of problems at work related to their sexual orientations.

In another slide we saw that Out Now research in the UK also reveals that eight in ten respondents believe that being out to everyone in their workplace poses a real risk of holding back their own career advancement.

These figures reveal that there remains a sizable gap to be bridged for many workers between the very important Diversity and Inclusion policies that are increasingly in place at corporations around the world, and the day-to-day reality of workplace discrimination that remains in place affecting the lives of LGBT people at work on a daily basis.

The LGBT business development and marketing session included informative presentations from Andreas of IBM, and Peter Varga of NESsT - who are setting up Galeforce Capital to build bridges between corporate philanthropy and social enterprises in various developing markets around the world.

Richard Zahoranschi of Eurogames 2012 - which is being held in Budapest - gave a presentation that revealed the expected economic impact of 10,000 visitors during Eurogames is likely to exceed 24 million euros benefit to the Hungarian economy.

The 1st Hungarian LGBT Business Leaders Forum was an outstanding success. More than 150 delegates attended both days of the conference, and this event was a landmark one for the whole Central and Eastern European region.

Perhaps my favorite statement during the event was one made by Adrian Balaci - a longtime Hungarian LGBT activist - who said that what he hoped would follow from this groundbreaking event was that the "Wall of Inclusion" for LGBT people at work would now be dragged eastward from Vienna - where it is currently perceived to stop. A graphic way to illustrate the imperative - and scale - of the task at hand.

It was an honor to be invited to, and participate in, this landmark event - the first of its kind in the region.

This event showed to me yet again the significant importance of LGBT diversity and marketing - and the real and positive potential that these things have to enhance people's lives.

A very affirming work function indeed.

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Out Now has been involved in lesbian and gay marketing research, corporate strategy and LGBT community development since 1992 -- when the company was first established in Australia.

The agency has grown to now include specialist LGBT consultants working in markets across the world.


If you want to get your LGBT marketing and gay travel market research knowledge policies up to speed to include the latest Out Now Global LGBT market research, or learn more about social media and other leading-edge gay marketing strategies, get in touch with the recognized market leaders Out Now.

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AdWeek referred to one of Out Now's gay advertising campaigns as "the year's most talked about tourism ads." Out Now Consulting is a leading global gay marketing specialist agency, founded in 1992. Clients include Barclays, IBM, Toyota, Citibank, German National Tourist Office, Visit Britain, Lufthansa and Time Inc. Magazines. Out Now won the "Outstanding Interactive" category in New York at the 'Images in Advertising' awards for an online campaign for their client Lufthansa.

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